como expatriar narrativas? | ismaelmonticelli

day_ 1_ At a time when the old biblical Flood myth renews itself with a modern significance that transmutes ink into water; to transmute the poet's boat into Noah's ark; At a time when there is a new migration of peoples in which books and newspapers play the role of the old barbarians. It may seem daring that a layman like me can usurp a place in the Republic of Narrators. However, the voice of truth prevails in me, the faithful representation of scenes full of events, the translation of the echoes of a strange language, brought with its history, through the past and the present. This country, privileged land of fables of the Arabian Nights, always raised me interest. I have no scientific pretensions. Only the inner desire to inform and at the same time, to distract. Truth and variety are the polar stars that guide me in this difficult task. I only dare to report what I saw and experienced myself, despite my inexperience as a narrator and my little knowledge of these languages.

day_ 2_ I wanted to see the world in its adventurous moment and considered this country as the focus of the great darkroom of the present time. I wanted to act in a role, even if it was only viewer. So I confess that I screwed up when I left my sleepy homeland and my career, even more sleepy, to try my luck here, driven by my dreams of youth, as a modern "fearless and uncensored knight".

day_ 3_ The only episode that happened when we crossed the equator was the death of a cow, which was going as a gift to the consul. The cow choked on herring, which was given as an antidote to their intestinal cramps. We are so sorry about this loss because we had to drink coffee without milk

day_ 4_ After counting for every minute, the mountain chairs came clearly and clearly to our eyes. Although we knew we would still have to spend the night aboard, we were happy, looking at those rocky masses, thinking that we could build in them the air castles of our most beautiful hopes. We spent the night on board, sleepless, daydreaming. In wordless conversations we interpreted each other's future dreams. Dawn has come, but it has not brought with it the satisfaction of our most burning desires.

day_ 5_ A thousand mismatched feelings filled our hearts. We had read and heard a lot about this country. At times they described him as the richest and most magnificent of all lands, at others the poorest and most miserable. The spirit of its inhabitants was regarded as the most cursed. We arrived at the place where we expected to find great luck. Who of us would win in this lottery? We could not all win. What is the constellation that would mark the destiny of our lives?

day_ 6_ This country is the greatest kingdom of wisdom, Catholicism, and superstition that translates into miracles. In the bible of the new Universal History, this country is the rich man who dies miserably like Lazarus, tattered and mutilated. Here is the land of nature, which, like every source of happiness, arouses exaggerated despotism but never tolerates it for long. Here is the garden of Paradise after the sin of Adam and the fig leaves episode.

day_ 7_ Our first impression of human life here was unpleasant and revolting. It destroyed all our idyllic dreams. Everything here consists of "hunting and being hunted." Like nowhere else, "hunting and being hunted" is here the symbol of life. This country is the land of nature and fairyland, land of fantasy and folly, land of anarchy, land of speculation, land of monkeys. The State is a harlequin in multicolored costume, who with his magic wand turns gold into paper, bread to stone, men to animals.

day_ 8_ Everything here is life and buzz. There is no lack of music, dance and singing, joy, expansiveness and madness. Wine and love give the key note in the epic of this day of pleasure. You weave the dream through the night and wake up the next morning with heartache and headache, for the kingdom of bliss dissipates with a constant pressure of the present fights.

day_ 9_ The houses here are low, small, dirty, dull and uncomfortable. Only in the richest houses do you see carpets, and often the ground floor is not tiled. In fact, sometimes there is a kind of luxury, even a kind of ostentation, but never elegance, symmetry or comfort inside the houses.

day_ 10_ This place is punished by the old pharaonic plague of the earth: the immortal rats. They thrive excellently in this country, multiplying horribly every year. Myriads of mosquitoes and toes that crawl under their toenails to lay their eggs. Hundreds of centipedes and scorpions, which, with its poisonous bites, increase the desperation and can lead any foreign crazy.

day_ 11_ The national bank should be regarded as a lottery office or as a kind of theater where human folly is tested, rewarded or punished. It is a game table where despair wins or loses.

day_ 12_ Extortions still happen every day, a hundred times larger scale. There are complaints of corruption from all sides, but the government does not take any action. As it turns out, the Constitution is not a native plant. It only avenges artificially in the greenhouses. And what is the current constitution? A child with a heart full of adult care but with an elderly cap.

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como expatriar narrativas?

[how to expatriate narratives?] 2019

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* Projeto realizado durante uma residência artística em La Becque Résidences d'artistes, em La Tour-de-Peilz, Suíça, viabilizada pela Bolsa para Artistas Sul Americanos 2019, Projeto Coincidencia, Fundação Pro Helvetia
[* Work done during an artistic residency at La Becque Résidences d'artistes, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, 2019, supported by the Residency Grant for South American Artists 2019, Coincidência Project, Pro Helvetia Foundation]

Durante os 322 anos de colonização do Brasil (1500–1822), grande parte dos relatos sobre o país foi registrada por estrangeiros, cujas perspectivas frequentemente definiam as narrativas locais. Entre esses observadores estava Carl Seidler, um jovem suíço-alemão de apenas dezesseis anos que chegou ao Brasil em 1826, sonhando em fazer fortuna. Contratado pelo exército imperial para lutar na Guerra Cisplatina, Seidler enfrentou desilusões em vez de sucesso. Após dez anos no país, ele retornou à Europa e publicou “Dez anos no Brasil”, um livro que alterna entre a admiração pelas paisagens tropicais e duras críticas à cultura, política e povo brasileiros.

“Como expatriar narrativas?” reflete sobre o impacto do olhar estrangeiro, especialmente no contexto colonial, subvertendo o legado de Seidler ao devolver sua narrativa à Suíça. Durante três meses de residência na Suíça, o artista produziu uma série de vídeos diários, publicados no Instagram como um diário visual de um viajante brasileiro nos Alpes. Os vídeos, todos mudos e em preto e branco, possuem uma leve distorção cônica, evocando a subjetividade da memória e da percepção. Suas legendas foram extraídas de passagens do livro de Seidler, recontextualizadas no ambiente suíço.

Essa prática performativa e audiovisual propõe um deslocamento narrativo: devolver à Suíça as observações de Seidler, agora reimaginadas através do olhar contemporâneo de um brasileiro. A obra questiona as dinâmicas do turismo, da colonização e do exotismo, ao mesmo tempo em que problematiza o poder das narrativas históricas na construção da memória coletiva.

During Brazil’s 322 years of colonization (1500–1822), much of the country’s history was recorded by foreign travelers, whose perspectives often shaped local narratives. Among them was Carl Seidler, a 16-year-old Swiss-German who arrived in Brazil in 1826, dreaming of fortune. Hired by the imperial army to fight in the Cisplatine War, Seidler faced disappointment instead of success. After spending ten years in the country, he returned to Europe and published “Ten Years in Brazil”, a book oscillating between admiration for tropical landscapes and harsh critiques of Brazilian culture, politics, and people.

“How to Expatriate Narratives?” reflects on the impact of foreign perspectives, particularly within a colonial context, by subverting Seidler’s legacy and returning his narrative to Switzerland. During a three-month residency in Switzerland, the artist created a series of daily videos, shared on Instagram as a visual diary of a Brazilian traveler in the Alps. These silent, black-and-white videos feature a subtle conical distortion, evoking the subjectivity of memory and perception. Their captions are drawn from passages in Seidler’s book, recontextualized within the Swiss environment.

This performative audiovisual practice proposes a narrative displacement: returning Seidler’s observations to Switzerland, now reimagined through the contemporary lens of a Brazilian artist. The work interrogates themes of tourism, colonization, and exoticism, while critically examining the power of historical narratives in shaping collective memory.

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